Where cultures meet

EFA, the European Festivals Association, will give Festivals a voice in Europe, says Kathrin Deventer, Secretary General of the Association.

Today, in these increasingly multicultural societies, festivals play a pioneering role as initiators, mediators and messengers to turn multi-cultural societies into intercultural societies. “We live at a time where the dialogue between cultures is much more relevant than the dialogue between nations,” as Enrique Gamez, Director of the Granada Festival, points out. Festivals are unique formats that allow exceptional access to and participation in cultural and social activities! As few other public platforms, festivals succeed in reaching the public sphere, communicating visions and ideas and introducing a sense of reflection. Through offering a challenging, sometimes surprising, provocative exposure of the artists’ work, festivals trigger thinking and support a tolerant and open society.

“More than ever, in present and future times,” Enrique Gamez says in an interview in EFA FestFlash 1, “a festival must be an effective vehicle for peace and social cohesion and must ensure an open perspective on the world (…). A festival has an added cultural, educational, recreational and economic responsibility as well as a social and civil one with the purpose of contributing to the positive enrichment of our respective societies.”

The European Festivals Association, from its very beginning, has been advocating the importance of arts in society. Founded by Denis de Rougemont in 1952, the Association has grown into an open and dynamic network representing more than a hundred music, dance, theatre and multidisciplinary arts festivals, national festivals associations and cultural organisations from 37 mainly European countries altogether.

What are we doing?

The aim of EFA is to promote the significance of festivals and their important role in international cultural cooperation as well as in society.

Since 2004, the EFA office is based in Gent/Belgium. EFA supports festivals in their international artistic activities through allowing networking opportunities in the first place. EFA also provides expertise on festivals, organises training and networking opportunities for young festival managers, and advocates festivals’ meaningful role in developing intercultural dialogue. Especially since 2004, after its move to Belgium, EFA makes the voice of festivals be heard as loudly as possible at a political level.

Working together, exchanging ideas, stimulating creativity, extending horizons, creating new dynamics and synergies, developing a fruitful playground for festivals, the artists and the arts: this is the core business the European Festivals Association, together with partners, is successfully implementing for more than 50 years!

Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue

On the occasion of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, EFA drafted its Arts Festivals’ Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue, a manifesto supported by the EU and promoted worldwide. The manifesto engages all sorts of arts and cultural festivals into 'intercultural dialogue'. Festivals in Europe and all over the world join forces and highlight the outstanding excellence of arts and culture and, in particular, festivals for developing and promoting intercultural dialogue.

·         Festivals reach broad audiences. The number of people attending festivals keeps increasing, which in turn shows a growing interest in the events organised in the frameworks of festivals. Reaching the largest number of people for the promotion intercultural dialogue is an important goal, as there cannot be any intercultural interaction if the people have no means to get in touch.

·         Festivals give artists from all over the world the opportunity of increasing and developing their artistic experience, thus initiating a process of mutual exchange of artistic excellence among different countries. In particular, the artists-in-residence programmes allow artists to live and work in new contexts and to combine their own experience with the local one, creating a positive and illuminating example of integration.

·         Differently from other media, the audiences attending festival events are encouraged to actively participate in them.  Festivals, conceived as plural and open moments to be shared and participated in by the largest number of people, enhance the concept of participation and promote a sense of belonging, as they are expressions of a local community, but at the same time address international and European topics.

·         Festivals boost cultural tourism. Every year millions of visitors decide to attend festivals in different regions or countries, coming into contact with new and different cultures and learning about foreign traditions and history.

·         Festivals are unique expressions of the local community, as they are firmly rooted in the local environment, but they are also very often linked to national and international contexts. They are challenges to local traditions - as they acknowledge cultural diversity - but at the same time they also stimulate innovation and respect the common cultural heritage.

·         Festivals play a unique role in the context of education by promoting a culture of peace and shaping understanding and respect amongst groups of people. Fringe activities, extensive use of new technologies, schemes and activities conceived especially for young people are particularly useful tools to reach youths and communicate with them, sharing values such as respect for other cultures, and launching education processes in the field of intercultural exchange. 

·         Outreach and fringe activities provide easy and open access to the cultural activities of festivals for all kind of audiences, attracting all kinds of people, thus enhancing the process of social inclusion. More and more festivals’ events take place in convivial atmospheres and in open venues which can be accessed basically by all, including disadvantaged people and ethnic or cultural minorities.

What has happened so far?

The Arts Festivals’ Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue was launched in January 2008 at the opening conference for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in the presence of 350 guests. Different communication tools have been developed:

-                      EFA’s website dedicated to the Declaration Project

-                      25 language versions of the Declaration:

-                      the Declaration Info Brochure

-                      the Declaration Document as signed in Ljubljana on the 8^th of January 2008

-                      Best practices examples of festivals promoting Intercultural Dialogue

-                      newsletter FestFlash on Intercultural Dialogue

In the first signing ceremony in Ljubljana 25 festivals and officials from 17 European countries signed the Declaration and committed to its objectives. This event was followed by signing ceremonies in Tallinn, where national festivals associations representing more than 500 festivals signed, in Oslo, and in Antalya, with signing parties from Asia and Africa.

Also, EFA launched an Open Call for signing up the Arts Festivals’ Declaration. Festivals signing up are included in the original Signing Book, which will be re-produced and widely distributed. Furthermore, the Festival will be featured on EFA’s Declaration website and on the EFA niche on the EU website dedicated to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. A series of projects are highlighted in the ‘FestFlash on Intercultural Dialogue’ sent out widely 6 times in 2008 and posted on the Declaration webpage.

What’s next?

In November 2008 at the closing conference of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue under the French EU presidency, the Signing Book will be presented, together with a series of exceptional work implemented by festivals in the spirit of the Declaration. In addition, the EFA BOOKS series will dedicate its fourth edition to Intercultural Dialogue and the power of festivals in this context.

Through the Arts Festivals’ Declaration, the European Festivals Assocation will involve festivals from all over the world into the reflection and implementation of intercultural dialogue in the conviction that such a dialogue represents an essential tool for peaceful interaction among different cultures, ethnic groups, religions, languages, beliefs and social backgrounds. It will enhance the promotion and maintenance of cultural diversity and oppose stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination and ignorance about different, foreign or minority cultures.

More information www.efa-aef.eu